


Tell me a Tale

by Occamaestro



Series: To marry Tomarry (is a difficult task) [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adventure, Best Friends, Child Neglect, Drabble, Ficlet, Harry Potter is a Good Friend, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Master of Death Harry Potter, Obscurus (Harry Potter), Past Child Abuse, Planned story, Sane Tom Riddle, Short, Tags Contain Spoilers, Time Travel, Wool's Orphanage (Harry Potter), three parts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28484142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Occamaestro/pseuds/Occamaestro
Summary: When two bonded souls are both in pain, Magic always finds a way to bring them together. When three-year-old Harry Potter is transported to Wool's Orphanage in the 1940's, well, Magic sure is proud of herself.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Tom Riddle, Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Series: To marry Tomarry (is a difficult task) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2112675
Comments: 8
Kudos: 85





	Tell me a Tale

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! this will be a fairly short fic, told in three parts, with about 1000 words in each part. Enjoy!

Hary lays in his _small-tiny-scary-black-black-black-so-black_ cupboard, quiet as a mouse, not daring to make a sound. Water drips slowly from the slanted cupboard ceiling. The droplets fall on the small boy’s forehead, making him wince. Harry does not know what he has done to warrant this _cold-cruel-unfair-why-is-it-always-him_ punishment. He does not know what makes him so much worse than _mean-big-kicking-kids-to-the-ground-stomping-on-their-fingers_ Dudley. He does not know why he is the one to get pushed to the brink of starvation when he has been nothing but good. He does not know why an accident his cousin made was acquitted to him. He would ask, but he thinks of his aunt’s voice, _mean-shrill-don’t-ask-questions_ , and shivers in dislike. 

He does not know why he is hated. He does not know why people act the way they do. He does not know why every time his aunt looks in his _green-sparkly-only-pretty-thing-he-has_ eyes and finches. Harry does not know a lot of things, and so when he closes his eyes to wake up in the middle of dark streets, a police officer staring down at him, he just adds it to the list. 

-oOo-

The first thing the man says is astonishing to harry. 

“Are you okay?”

Harry has never had anyone ask him these three words. They are alien to him. Harry has only ever known _get-up-stop-crying-now-what-will-the-neighbors-think_ and _boy-you-better-stop-pretending-right-now-or-else._ Those three words, small, insignificant, and likely even given while on autopilot mean the world to harry. So when the officer tells him that he will go somewhere nice, he decides to believe him. It is a stupid decision.

-oOo-

Wool’s is anything but nice. It is cold, dreary, and, by the looks of it, lowly funded. It is situated in the middle of nowhere, London. Of course, Harry, being three years old, does not see it that way. To him, it is a solace, a place where he could finally be rid of _bone-breaking-not-caring-please-no-let-me-go-please_ uncle Vernon, _kicking-hurting-why-are-you-crying-you-baby_ Dudley, and _freak-evil-i-didn't-do-it-i-swear-please-believe-me_ Petunia. It is for this reason he does not argue as he is herded into an overcrowded room and just lies in his small cot, intent on being alone. It does not last

-oOo-

By morning, Harry is subject to the unique drama of the orphanage. The children believe it started with Tom riddle, who had argued with a boy named Billy Stubbs the day previous. Harry does not understand why mean-cruel-apparently-hurting-with-only-words-so-it-doesn’t-count bullies are allowed. He also does not understand why tom _mysterious-evil-freak-harry-can-relate-riddle_ is blamed. After all, how could such a small boy have reached high enough to have hung a rabbit? He asks the adults this but they only respond with the same don’t-ask-questions expression _Aunt-don’t-call-her-aunt-she-doesn’t-deserve-it_ Petunia had used. He doesn’t understand why, but he is told to let it go. He listens; if only to make sure they don’t punish him. 

-oOo-

The next time something peculiar happens, it is 6 months later. Harry walks outside, his bookbag stiff and clutched close. The last time he had let his posture relax and book bag swing, it had resulted in ripping-tearing-i-don’t-have-money-to-buy-another-one-please-stop. When he finally finds a tree far enough away with a good shade amount he sits, staring to read. The book he has today is old, worn, and loved by many. In the dreary orphanage, a story about magic and mystical mystery is about the best things get, and Harry is determined to find out if he is a warlock-wizard-perhaps-a-mage-really-anything-but-a-freak. As he flips the pages, searching and scanning for answers, he hears a faint noise. Harry is but a child, only four years of age, and is curious; so he turns and looks around. 

A little while away from him he spots _mysterious-illusive-smart-doesn’t-care-what-others-think_ tom riddle, a snake by his outstretched hands. Gently, Harry closes the book, and turns his attention to the tiny-beautiful-green-like-his-eyes snake. Faintly, he hears a : **hello there, Mr. Snake:** and in return, a **:Speaker! Speaker!:**

Harry gasps at the snake’s speech, alerting tom-should-he-call-him-tom-or-riddle to his presence. At that moment Harry feels no better than a malevolent-vicious-cruel-i'm-telling-on-you spy. 

Tom’s voice does not waver when he orders **:Bite Him:** Harry’s eyes widen as the snake begins to slither-almost-ready-to-pounce. **:NO STOP!:** he yells, and firmly screws his eyes shut. When he opens them Tom’s mouth is agape, and the snake has a cute little snakey expression of absolute snakey joy written on its face. 

**:Two Speakers!:** the snake says gleefully, **:Oh, my hatch mates will never hear the end of this!:**

The two boys stay silent while the tiny snake dances (or perhaps wriggles would be more accurate) in joy. Tom opens his mouth, then closes it, as if becoming indecisive. While harry does see a certain spark in the other boy’s eye, he is quite surprised when tom finally asks,

“Will you be my friend?”

Harry has never been skilled at differentiating good from bad. He says yes. 

After the day Harry and Tom become friends, Harry can never find the old book again. Harry doesn’t mind, though, because Tom and a few special snakes teach him more than the book could have anyway. 

-oOo-

“Tom?” Harry asks, opening the door slowly. Harry is worried, Tom has never been like this before, Tom has never ignored him before. 

“Go away,” Tom’s voice is cold commanding. His voice is the same to Harry now as it is to all others not used to his facade. Something is wrong.

Harry’s breath turns quick as he imagines what could have turned Tom like this. Could he have been… exorcised? Now that Harry thinks about it, he remembers the priest at their door, knocking with a pamphlet so different from the ones he usually sees. He should have been with him. Harry should have never let Tom out of his sight today. Out of the two boys, Tom is, with no doubt, the more suspicious one. He is the one who manages to put himself in a place of suspicion without Harry's help. True, Harry cannot say he hasn’t ever been caught, but he does know that if he concentrates really hard, he can feel his special-unique-not-freakiness touching the boys’ minds and making them forget. 

“Tom did something happ-'' Harry opens the door and stifles a gasp. Tom is surrounded by black-black-black-as-black-as-his-cupboard with red-red-red-as-spilt-blood eyes. Harry does not know what to do to help. He has not felt this useless feeling since the _waste-of-space-we-took-you-out-of-the-goodness-of-our-hearts-boy-you’ll-be-a-drunk-like-your-father_ Dursleys. 

The blackness lunges for him, aiming for his neck. Harry braces for impact (it can’t be worse than what back-in-your-cupboard-no-no-please-stop-hurting-me Vernon did, after all). But as he puts his arms up, he doesn’t feel anything except air. But Tom does. He screams as the black starts to dissipate. Harry is _so-so-so-scared-deep-breath-harry-i-said-take-a-breath-calm-down_. He stumbles backward in vain, hoping not to hurt the-best-friend-i-could-ever-have-thank-you Tom. It seems he does the right thing, as Tom stops screaming.

Harry knows it is not over though, because his eyes still shine _bright-bright-lots-of-blood-on-my-hands-is-it-my-blood_ red. 

“Who are you?” Harry asks gently. 

20 minutes, a stashed cookie, and a lot of coaxing later, it turns out that other-Tom is an _evil-and-vile-oh-come-on-other-Tom-you-know-that’s-not-true_ manifestation of repressed magic. Harry has named other-Tom Onyx. It only takes a few more bribes for Onyx to let Tom come back. 


End file.
